Visions of an Enduring World: Jacoulet and the People of Oceania

Closeness to Nature

Jacoulet’s focus on paradisal leisure and adornments evoke this theme of his subjects’ proximity to nature as a sign of “primitiveness”: primitive ways that inferred a natural progression to civilization through colonization. Between his watercolors and prints his subjects shift back and forth between melancholy and mischief as Jacoulet interprets their collective shift into “civilization” at the time of Japanese colonization. Overall Jacoulet provides a snapshot of Western understanding of the Pacific Islanders in the 20th century and how his art contributed to the sentiment of disappeared communities.

What is your favorite Jacoulet portrait? How do you interpret the subjects of his prints? What do you think Jacoulet wants you to feel when you see his work?

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